Best Selling Books by Ted Hughes

This collection of eleven evocative, accessible and funny stories for children of 5+ tells how a particular animal came to be as it is now. The Whale grew up in God''s vegetable patch but was banished to sea when he became too large and crushed all His carrots; the Polar Bear was lured to the North Pole by the other animals who were jealous that she always won the annual beauty contest; the Hare has asked the moon to marry him but can never stretch his ears high enough to hear her reply; the Bee must sip honey all day long to sweeten the bitter demon that runs through his veins . . . each story is a delight for reading alone or aloud.

This volume replaced Ted Hughes''s Selected Poems 1957-1981. It contains a larger selection from the same period, to which are added poems from more recent books, uncollected poems from each decade of Ted Hughes''s writing life, and some new work. Another notable feature is the inclusion of poems from his books for younger readers, What is the Truth? and Season Songs.

Originally published in 1979, Moortown Diary is the updated version of Ted Hughes''s acclaimed Devon farming sequence, written over a period of several years during which he was spending almost every day outside, either gardening or farming. The introduction and notes (added in 1989) sketch in the background from which these remarkable poems emerged as an improvised verse journal, sparely edited, coalescing spontaneously on the page. '' Moortown Diary keeps its eye firmly on the creatures behind the language. It''s written in the style of Hughes''s play translations: very swift and bright and urgent and speakable...Hughes strips away the protective layers - the soundproofed ears, the double-glazed eyes - that prevent us making contact with anything outside ourselves. Right now, I can''t think of anything more important than that kind of poem. Because we''re not just here to think about literature. We''re here to try to wake up.'' Alice Oswald, The Guardian ''It grips your heart, and your intestines, like a vice from the first page. He makes language as physical as a bruise, and in these poems beauty and tenderness blend with violence.'' John Carey, Sunday Times ''The Moortown sequence includes some of Hughes''s finest poems...They are like no other poems I have read, with a degree of intensity, sanity and grace that he has never equalled.'' Anthony Thwaite, Times Literary Supplement

A translation of the Greek tragedy about Agamemnon King of Argos.

Dramatisation of Ted Hughes'' translation of 24 stories from Ovid''s Metamorphoses into parts for six women, five men, and three musician performers.

Explores the strange and wonderful moon-world. The terrain is fantastic, its creatures both intriguing and grotesque, but all is touched by the Poet Laureate''s moon magic.

Forty years after it was first published, Ted Hughes''s Flowers and Insects, Some Birds and a Pair of Spiders is presented in a beautifully redesigned edition with a new introduction by the nature writer Tim Dee. The sixteen poems gathered here brim and bristle with the life Hughes generates from the absolute attention he commits to whatever it is he is looking at. His knack for finding a language to animate its subject, without a trace of sentiment or nostalgia, singles out Hughes as one of the truly great poet-interpreters of the natural world. This edition gives full justice to the subtlety of the original watercolour illustrations, produced by Hughes''s long-term collaborator and friend, the American artist, Leonard Baskin.

Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster, is tired of being told that she doesn''t exist. In this crackling, lolloping story in verse, Ted Hughes describes how she sets out on the road to London for an audience with the Queen...

From Ted Hughes, England''s Poet Laureate, Knopf is proud to present a children''s classic which has been unavailable in the U.S. for many years. First published in 1968, The Iron Giant is a modern fantasy about a massive giant who stalks the earth devouring metal, terrifying farmers and townspeople everywhere. Despite his insatiable hunger, the Iron Giant is quite gentle and good-natured, though the townspeople are too frightened of him to realize it. So they capture him and put him in a scrapyard, where he happily stuffs himself with stoves and bicycles. The people forget about the Iron Giant until a space-bat the size of Australia hovers over the earth, poised to destroy it. Earth needs a hero and only the Iron Giant is big enough and brave enough to do battle with the hideous creature from outer space. With a tractor-eating giant, a menacing space-bat, and a young boy-hero, The Iron Giant is an accessible, early chapter book with plenty of appeal for reluctant readers and budding science fiction and fantasy fans.